Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson blasted the idea of sin bins being introduced in football, calling the idea “pathetic” and ranting “that’s not football.”
The International Association Board (IFAB) announced on Tuesday that the new 10 minute sin bin after receiving a yellow card will be trialled further up the football pyramid and could even reach the professional game after initial tests at grassroots level.
It’s believed that the introduction of sin bins will reduce the level of abuse that officials receive in the wake of Lewis Dunk’s red card against Nottingham Forest after seemingly calling Anthony Taylor a ‘f***ing b***end’ with dissent punishable by being temporarily removed from the game – similar to rugby.
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Speaking on Sky Sports, Merson hit out at the current state of decision making by officials in the Premier League and in European competitions, claiming the decisions "aren’t even hard" that the officials are getting "horribly wrong".
The former Arsenal man spoke about the success that technology has had in rugby but claimed that the sin bin wouldn’t work to the same effect in football. He said: “So they want to bring in sin bins. Sin bins? Pathetic.
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“Their (rugby) sin bin is massive, you get a sin bin in rugby union or rugby league, you’re talking seven to ten points – the game opens up. It’s very rare you’re not going to get majorly punished for your sin bin.
“In football, you just sit 10 (players) behind the ball and the game would be killed. The ball would go out and they’d jog and get the ball and they’d throw it in and they’ll waste time and then someone else would get sin binned and someone else. Everybody would be looking at the scoreboard and they’ll be going ‘Tom’s coming back on in four, so and so is coming back on in three and then what will it be then? 10 v10?’
“And that’s how it’s going to be and that’s not football, they’re ruining the game. It didn’t have to be changed that much, we’re talking about the greatest sport in the world and you’re trying to change it.” Merse added before he put his head into his hands: “It just drives me up the wall, we’re trying to copy a sport that isn’t like ours you get majorly punished, sin bins?!”
Merson continued to say officials should be looking to stop those ‘cheating’ as opposed to anything else, something that he claims VAR has encouraged in a way, he added: “It’s when people are cheating that’s what we’ve got to stop, and that’s what they’re not looking at.
“Nowadays people are going over and if they go over and don’t get a penalty it doesn’t matter. But they might as well try their eye with the people upstairs (VAR) who haven’t got a clue, let's be honest, they haven’t got a clue. So why wouldn’t you chance your arm?”
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